


The Song

by aceofsparrows



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Secret Songbird Gift Exchange 2019, bleuaceofsparrows fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21930160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofsparrows/pseuds/aceofsparrows
Summary: Secret Songbird 2019!!Eurydice stumbles upon a boy singing in an empty theater. Hadestown high school modern au. :)
Relationships: Eurydice/Orpheus (Hadestown)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 47





	The Song

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MiMyMomo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiMyMomo/gifts).



It’s been a rough day. Fridays are always like that. Every teacher is either giving a test or making them give presentations or something equally terrible, and all Eurydice wants to do is go home to an empty apartment, turn up her music unreasonably loud and dance and not have to talk to anyone. 

It’s been a rough day, and it’s only lunch time. Well, it would be lunch time if Eurydice had any lunch to eat, but her mother’s been out town for the last week and her allowance ran out yesterday after dinner, so instead of eating she’s wandering the halls, humming to herself and searching for something to take her mind off the in-class essay she has next hour. 

Her feet take her to the theater. They usually do when she wanders; although it’s usually locked, when she can Eurydice loves to slip into the warm, silent darkness and sit in the aisle, breathing in the memories and scents of shows gone by. 

Today the side door is open, which surprises her. Perhaps the choir teacher forgot to lock it after the last class period. In any case, she takes this as a sign and slips through the door quietly, taking a deep breath. It smells like it usually does– like old books and hairspray and dust on hot lightbulbs– and it’s dark and peaceful and–

“ _La, la la la la la la la…_ ” 

There’s someone in the theater. Some who’s singing to an empty audience from up on the stage that’s shrouded in shadows cast by the yellow ghost light. 

Eurydice freezes. Should she stay, or should she go? Is she allowed to be in here? Is the singer allowed to be in here? Will they both get in trouble? She doesn’t need detention again, not after last time when Mr. Hades reported her for fighting with that girl Atropos from her APUSH class and she had to stay after school for an hour and then walk all the way home in the sub-zero weather. 

Eurydice is about to leave as quietly as she came when the person on the stage calls out to her. 

“Hey, you!” 

She freezes. Though her back is turned she knows they’re coming down the steps and up the aisle by the way their footsteps patter in the vast, cushioned silence. 

And then they’re right behind her. “Hey,” they say, slightly out of breath, and Eurydice turns slowly to face them. 

And it’s not a them anymore, it’s Orpheus, the boy who sits next to her in Dramatic Lit. 

“Orpheus?” Eurydice says in recognition, frowning. “What are you doing here?”

Orpheus smiles lopsided. “I feel like I should be asking you the same thing, Eurydice.” 

Eurydice is surprised he knows her name, but that’s the least of her worries at the moment. “You tell me first, Poet.” It’s a nickname that the class has for Orpheus; unlike Eurydice, he’s always talking in class, bringing up his grand ideas and opinions about Shakespeare and Chekhov and sharing his own poetry. 

Orpheus looks slightly bashful, eyes shifting his gaze somewhere slightly behind her as he speaks. “Oh, well, I have this song I’ve been working on, and I wanted to practice it in here because I’m performing it at the choir showcase next week and I wanted to see if it was, ya know, good enough. If it sounded right in the space, I guess.” He shrugs, hand absently scratching at the back of his neck.

Eurydice swallows. “Oh. Well, I was just wandering because I didn’t have any lunch to eat and I came here because I like the dark silence, you know? But then you were here, and well….” She doesn’t mean to say that much, to tell him really why she’s here, but something about his open face and the way he holds his lanky frame like his heart is too big for his chest makes her open up, and the words spill from her mouth before she even notices she’s thought them. 

Orpheus looks up, meeting her gaze with a smile again. “I’m sorry if I disturbed your silence, Eurydice,” he says truthfully, and it’s peculiar, because although the statement itself could be back-handed coming from anyone else, Orpheus says it like he wholeheartedly means it. Like it was him trespassing and not her. 

“No, no, it’s fine,” Eurydice says, shaking her head. She needs to leave, she needs to leave right now. This boy is too nice, and she is too hungry and tired and heavy-minded for him right now. He too perfect, and she needs to leave. She needs to leave, she needs to–

Orpheus catches her forearm in his warm, calloused hand as she turns to go, gently making her pause. “Don’t– don’t go. Please. I… I’d like an audience, actually, if you don’t mind. I need the practice.”

Eurydice drops her head, sighing, preparing to tell him no. “Orpheus, I–”

“Please, Eurydice?” He whispers, and oh, the way he says her name…

_Eurydice_. He says it like it’s the grandest, most important word in the world. Like he’s saying _Jesus_ or _Shakespeare_. Her name on his lips is something sacred, something beautiful, something it has never been on anyone else’s. Her mother says her name like it’s a curse, her teachers like it’s an unpleasant aftertaste. But Orpheus says it like it’s a melody, and maybe that’s what makes her stay. 

Or maybe it’s the simple fact that he knows her name at all. 

Orpheus lets her go when she doesn’t move to leave again, and after a moment he jogs back up to the stage, long legs taking the steps two at a time. Eurydice settles in the aisle, knees pulled close her chest, and watches him settles his guitar on his lap as he perches on a high stool in the center of the stage. 

There is a moment of only breath, of only silence, and then he begins. 

“ _King of shadows, king of shades, Hades was king of the Underworld…_ ”

The song is ****beautiful. Hauntingly beautiful, the way shouting your name in a dark cave is beautiful as it echos back to you and thousand times, over and over and over again until it doesn’t even sound like your name anymore. It’s a an old story, obviously taken from the ancient myths, but from the way Orpheus sings it it could have happened yesterday.

“ _La, la la la la la la la…_ ” 

That melody, over and over again, burrowing deep into her soul. Orpheus’ bright, smooth tenor soars through the theater, swirling around Eurydice and making her want to inhale every note and hold it in her lungs, spread it though her veins and brain and let it linger. 

“ _La, la la la la la la la…_ ” 

Orpheus has kept his eyes closed almost the entire time, swaying slightly with the ebb and flow of the song, but when he comes to a quiet part he opens his eyes and looks right at Eurydice, soft gaze making her feel as if he’s singing directly to her, as if he’s asking her a silent question through his song’s lyrics.

“ _Where is the treasure inside of your chest? Where is your pleasure? Where is your youth?_ ” 

Eurydice’s breath catches in her throat, tight and hot and surprising, and a tear slips down her cheek. She feels those words like tiny needles to her heart, reminding her of all the things in her life that she wishes were different. 

That her mom wasn’t gone for weeks at a time for gods-know-what, leaving her alone with little money and no one to call if she needs help. That her dad hadn’t left so long ago, that he’d still call her on her birthday like he used to when she was young. That she enjoyed her classes, that she had the guts to join a club or audition for the school play or take an art class. That she could laugh without being self-conscious about it, or that she could speak up in class and raise her hand without feeling her skin crawl with the gaze of the entire class. 

She’s definitely crying now, and whispering with Orpheus as he finishes his song, their lips moving together with the now-familiar melody.

“ _La, la la la la la la la…_ ”

Orpheus finishes, his last chord fading into oblivion, and Eurydice heaves a huge breath, trying to calm her tears so he won’t notice. He does anyway. In a moment he’s kneeling before her, a soft hand resting lightly on her knee. 

“Hey, Eurydice, hey, it’s okay, it’s just a song, I didn’t mean to hurt you, Eurydice, I’m so sorry, it’s just a song…” 

Eurydice uncurls to throw her arms around Orpheus, hugging him tightly to her in a split-second decision. 

“Thank you, Orpheus,” she whispers into his shoulder, and he places a cautious hand on her back, leaning into the hug just slightly. “It’s not just a song, and you don’t have to be sorry…. It’s beautiful, Orpheus, so beautiful…” 

And in that moment, in the darkness, Eurydice wonders for the first time if this is what it’s like to have a friend. 

And though she can’t see it, Orpheus is smiling too. _Someone loves his song…_


End file.
